Fun Fact Friday #3

Now 92% of all of the world's currency is digital. Crazy but true! So, it would make sense for stores to accommodate digital payments right? I'm talking about a way to pay other than carrying a wad of debit and credit cards. If you haven't heard or have been living under a rock for the past year, now you can with Samsung Pay or Apple Pay!

What is it?

Basically a digital wallet to make it easier to pay in stores. Add your debit and credit cards easily and to purchase, just hold your phone near a card reader to pay. That easy.

How does it work?

Both Samsung Pay and Apple Pay use NFC standard to communicate with pay terminals which requires stores to upgrade their hardware to support contactless pay. Samsung Pay actually takes it a step further and supports MST (magnetic secure transmission) which in layman's term, means it works anywhere and with any payment terminal, upgraded or not.

Where can I use it?

With Apple Pay, you can only use it where retailers have contactless pay terminals set up. With Samsung Pay, you can use it anywhere since it supports the old pay terminals.

What's the point?

A person, on average carries 4-5 cards in their wallet. Now, there's no need for that! All you need really is your phone and ID which makes things a lot simpler.

Best of all, it's a secure method to pay. Bring up the app, and your fingerprint is required. Samsung and Apple doesn't store your payment info on your device or their servers and they never share the info.

Which ones better?

For ease of use, Apple Pay requires a couple steps less than Samsung Pay which makes them better in that aspect.

However, for ability to actually use the service, Samsung Pay would be the winner since it is accepted anywhere due to its compatibility with the older pay terminals.